Organic Leads vs. Purchasing Leads – What’s the Difference?

It’s a question every business asks itself: How can I find more customers? You may have tried purchasing lead lists to cold call that come with an exclusivity guarantee, where the company promises to not sell that lead to anyone else. But if you aren’t also improving your ranking on Google for relevant keywords, your long-term growth opportunities may stagnate. 

Let’s discuss the value of purchased leads vs. organic leads and what your company stands to gain from both. 

 

Organic leads vs. Purchasing leads 

Organic leads can refer to interested customers that discovered your company through a variety of channels. Most often, they’ll find your website from a relevant Google search, but they could also find your website via branded social media posts, paid ads, and any other aspect of the top of your sales funnel. Essentially, these customers come to you after you’ve built trust with them and caught their eye at the right time.  

A purchased lead list, meanwhile, is an attempt to fast-track the process of speaking directly with the customer. Lead lists are typically generated by companies that collect the information of people who may be interested in your product or service. These companies sell these lists for as much as $40 per lead with the justification that a solid lead is worth a lot more to you than that. 

And that’s probably true – a qualified lead is most likely worth a lot more than $40. But are lead lists full of qualified leads? The answer is, you won’t know until you pay and start cold calling.  

 

Issues with purchased leads 

Most companies that sell lead lists claim that they only sell each lead once, so you won’t have competition when you try to close the sale. The issue is, there’s simply no way of verifying that exclusivity. They might sell the same list to another company in your industry, and you’d have no way of knowing. 

The metrics by which a lead is “qualified” is similarly impossible to verify. Perhaps the customer expressed interest in purchasing a product like yours, but it may have been years ago. If that customer has been on multiple lead lists, they may be irritated to be getting another cold call. The average person receives 18 calls a month that classify as spam, and that number is climbing all the time. Adding your company’s number to that cacophony could turn the customer off before they’ve ever spoken to you. 

 

Benefits of organic leads 

Organic lead generation can be more effective because it allows you to build relationships with potential customers over time. Rather than simply receiving their contact info and a promise that they’re interested in your service, organic lead gen via Google searches allow you to pinpoint what your target audience is currently searching learn more about your audience – including what they’re looking for in your products and services, and how your products or services can help them achieve their goals. You can then tailor your future campaigns to reflect those insights, increasing the chances that you’ll connect with the right leads and drive more sales. 

Organic marketing strategies also have a much longer lifespan than purchased leads, meaning that you can keep using the same techniques to bring in more leads over a long period of time. Once set up, organic methods of lead generation, such as SEO and brand-building, can keep running in the background and generating leads in perpetuity. This can be essential to the long-term health of your business, as it helps you maintain a steady stream of interested leads while building trust with your customers. 

Not sure how to get started? Speak with a 1GS agent today to start finding your own leads and say goodbye to purchasing lead lists! 

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